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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29707608">The Tumultus Life Of Sokka In LA</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunderclouds/pseuds/thunderclouds'>thunderclouds</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, F/M, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 17:21:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,520</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29707608</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunderclouds/pseuds/thunderclouds</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>this genuinely sucks lmao dont read this</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Tumultus Life Of Sokka In LA</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>listen. LISTEN i will be writnng this. if u read it thats on u. i havent written for a long long time so this is going to suck highkey. <br/>so sokka and zuko r 19, katara and the rest of the gaang r in grade 12/11. thats all u need to know for now i think.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“LA sucks.”</p><p>“Sokka we JUST got here.” Katara said to his right not even looking up from her phone, where she was no doubt complaining about his complaining to Aang.</p><p>With a groan Sokka slammed his head back into the headrest of the driver's seat.</p><p>“Kataraaaa…”</p><p>No response.</p><p>“KATARAA!”</p><p>“What.”</p><p>“It's hot.” a snort sounded from the passenger seat</p><p>“Yeah well maybe if your geezer mobile had functional air conditioning…”</p><p>Sokka let out an offended gasp, and moved his hand to the console.</p><p>“She didn't’ mean it, Gertie.” He cooed gently.</p><p>“No, I definitely did. Seriously how did you spend so much money on this thing to not even give it air conditioning?”</p><p>“Do you want to walk?”<br/>…</p><p>“That's what I thought,” Sokka said smugly.</p><p>“Idiot” Katara said gently as she playfully shoved his arm. “I'm sorry Gertie, I'll pay for Starbucks if we go through the drive thru?”</p><p>“Deal.”</p><p> </p><p>They continued driving, Katara blasting Sound the Alarm by Nicki Minaj through the crackly speakers after wrestling the aux cord out of Sokka’s control. Sokka put up less than a fight than he usually would have because, to be honest, with every kilometer that ticked up on his dashboard, the heavier the pit in his stomach was.</p><p>He’d applied to UCLA as a joke. Hadn't expected an acceptance letter, let alone a full ride scholarship. He had hid the letter for a week under his mattress, until Katara finally got him to spill. He’d thought she’d be upset, to be honest a part of him wanted her to tell him not to go. Instead she had yelled at him for not telling her before wrapping him up in a bear hug and promising to help him move.<br/>It's not that he didn't want to go, he just didn't want to leave. He’d lived in the same town for his whole life, the farthest he’d ever been was to the next city over for volleyball tournaments. He didn’t want to leave his sister, or their dad, or their friends, or the library, or the one Walmart they had, or the Mcdonalds that still had the older interior designs, not updated in years.<br/>And yet here he was, hundreds of miles away from home. His grip on the steering wheel tightened. He glanced into the rearview, eyes scanning the back seat where his suitcase and boxes were stacked haphazardly. He took another sip of his starbucks, turning his eyes back onto the road.</p><p>He’d seen the pamphlets of the campus, long nights with Katara planning their trip with maps and pictures strewn across his bed. But looking at it now he let out a breath of astonishment. It was massive. The community college back home was composed of one building with three levels and a parking lot. UCLA was enormous, its grounds sprawling far out of view.<br/>“You are going to get lost so much.” Katara said eyes just as wide as his probably were. He didn't even try and defend himself just reached onto the dash to throw the campus map at his sister.<br/>It wasn't even just the size of university but holy shit there were a lot of people. It was move-in day, he reasoned with himself. There was no way it'd be this busy normally.<br/>He wasn't so sure.</p><p>After driving aimlessly for 20 minutes and asking a couple volunteers they finally found his dormitory building. Katara hopped out of the car immediately despite Sokka's protests to wait just a minute.<br/>With the blink of his eye, his sister's lacrosse jersey disappeared into the crowd.</p><p>“Dammit Katara”</p><p>Unbuckling his seat belt he got out of the car to grab his stuff from the back, or at least some of it. Katara had offered to help and she wasn't getting off that easily.</p><p>Grabbing the box that said ‘Bedding’ written in his messy handwriting, and slinging his backpack with his laptop and books onto his shoulder, he shuffled through the crowd after Katara.<br/>She beat him to the room, already inspecting it and trying to look like she wasn't snooping through what he assumed was his roommate's stuff.</p><p>“Maybe don’t piss off the roommate I haven't met yet by going through his shit.” He said joining her in her investigation.</p><p>His roommate had taken the left side of the room, the guy looked like he had fully unpacked. His sheets were plain, black and red. His desk was tidy, not necessarily organized but neat. His books were stacked according to height and he’d left his Mac Book behind. He also had a large collection of highlighters that Sokka hoped he’d share. He’d put up a single poster, what looked like one of those posters you got from the national geographic magazine of a...Sokka looked at the yellow writing at the corner of the print.</p><p>“Spot-Billed Duck” Sokka said, leaning back, finger tucked under his chin inquisitively.</p><p>“So my roommate’s a bird freak. Cool”</p><p>He predicted the light-hearted slap on his arm, dodging it swiftly. “Sorry, sorry, bird fanatic, my apologies Katara.”</p><p>She rolled her eyes.</p><p>“Go get the rest of your shit from the car. I’ll get your bed set up.” She said already moving to open the box he had placed at the foot of what was now Sokka's bed on the right side of the room.<br/>Swinging his keys around his finger he left Katara to do her thing, which probably did include further snooping.</p><p>It took a couple of trips but eventually all of his belongings had been moved into his new room. He glanced at all of the boxes that had piled up, the only one unpacked being his bedding. His stomach grumbled.</p><p>“Katara, we are doing this after we get food.”</p><p>“I'm only here for the day. If we don't get it done now, you will be living out of boxes.”</p><p>Sokka pouted, giving up his best puppy eyes he could.</p><p>Katara sighed. “Okay we can order in. But we unpack your crap until it gets here.”</p><p>Sokka knew she was right so he didn't bother arguing.</p><p>They started unpacking together, Katara chastising him occasionally for how horribly he had organized his boxes. Other than that, the conversation was light. He could tell she was also starting to feel the clock ticking. It was 3pm, and her flight was at 10pm. They’d have to leave in five hours to get her there with enough time.</p><p>When his clothes had been all sorted by colour, and his numerous posters put up with sticky puddy, their food finally arrived.</p><p>“I’ll be back in a minute. I'll grab the pizza.” Katara said grabbing the cash off of his desk.</p><p>“ZA TIME, BABY!” Sokka shouted, punching his fist in the air and completely abandoning his stack of engineering textbooks he was placing on his (ridiculously small) desk. Katara let out a laugh as she waved out the door.</p><p>He flopped back onto his bed, which was extremely comfortable. Katara had bought him a mattress topper as his graduation gift and sweet Jesus, he was grateful. He stared up at the ceiling, plain and boring. Unlike his ceiling back home which had been covered with glow in the dark stars this one was less fun to stare at. He made a mental note to find a dollar store as soon as he could. Hopefully his mysterious roommate wouldn't mind the fun addition.</p><p>“Uh...Hey” a gravelly voice came from out of Sokka's sight. Sokka nearly jumped out of his skin, and knocked his head against the wall.</p><p>“OW!” Sokka shouted hand reaching to the back of his head.</p><p>“Are you okay??” the stranger asked, concern heavy in his voice.</p><p>Sokka rubbed the back of his head and cracked his eyes open, and immediately felt his mouth go dry. There was a boy in his doorway. A very pretty boy, a very pretty boy with probably the prettiest eyes he’d ever seen. He immediately straightened himself up, put on his best charmer smile. Time for some Sokka smoothness.</p><p>“S-sock.” he stumbled out. God dammit. The Adonis that stood in his doorway's face scrunched up, adorably, in confusion.</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>“Uhm.”</p><p>“Did you say sock?” Shit.</p><p>“Sokka, my name. My name is Sokka. Hi.”</p><p>The boy blinked, eyelashes fluttering.</p><p>“Im Zuko?” Zuko(?) said, voice lilting into a question.</p><p>“Are you sure about that?” Sokka said with a grin returning to his face.</p><p>“Yes, sock. I am.” Sokka's grin disappeared again.</p><p>“Okay birdboy.” Sokka shot back, patting himself on the back for the comeback.</p><p>“Birdboy?”</p><p>“Dude, you have a single decoration of a bird on your side, I got nothing to work with.”</p><p>Zuko cracked a small smile. Oh, Sokka definitely wanted to see him smile again.</p><p>He was about to hit out another banger joke to make this beautiful man fall in love with him when Katara also appeared in the doorway with an Extra Large meat lovers pizza.</p><p>“Sokka, I'm bac-- Who's this?” she said glancing over Zuko.</p><p>“Katara, Zuko. Zuko, Katara. Okay you have been introduced, get that Za over here.” Sokka said quickly, mouth already salivating. At long last...Food.</p><p>“Don’t be rude, Sokka. Nice to meet you Zuko, are you Sokka's roommate? I'm his sister” She said shifting the pizza into her left hand to stick a fist out. Zuko timidly bumped his open hand against her fist. Katara’s eye twitched, signalling that she was trying very hard not to laugh.</p><p>“Uh, hi. Nice to meet you Katara.”</p><p>“Do you want some pizza too, Zuko? There's plenty to go around!” No way was Katara gonna steal his thunder, no sir, no today.</p><p>“Are you a meat lover, Zuko?”</p><p>Zuko let out a choked gasp as Katara turned on him, murder in her eyes.</p><p>“Sokka!”</p><p>“Pizza! The pizza is meat lovers! Jeez, Katara get your head on right.”</p><p>Katara stared at him</p><p>“Disgusting really, what kind of man do you take me for, dear sister?”</p><p>Shoving the pizza box into Zuko's unsuspecting hands she started walking towards him. Sokka scuttered back into the wall, laughing.</p><p>“Katara, Katara, Katara, I'm joking, I'm sorry!” He said, hands flying up in front of himself “Zuko! Help! She’s going to victimize me!”</p><p>Katara jumped onto the bed, swiftly tasered him in his ribs, before settling with her back against the wall.</p><p>“Zuko, grab Sokka's shitty gamer chair, and bring that pizza over here I'm hungry.”</p><p>Sokka let out an aghast gasp at the personal attack and Zuko smiled again, just a little bigger than last time. He wheeled the chair over to them and tried to pass the pizza box back to Katara, which was quickly intercepted by Sokka.</p><p>He grabbed a slice immediately from the box after tearing it open, shoving it into his mouth as fast as he could.</p><p>“Sokka you’re disgusting. Zuko sit down.” Sokka looked up and yes, Zuko was in fact still standing awkwardly in front of them.</p><p>“Zuko. Sit.” Katara said again, and Zuko sat down immediately. Hands clasped in front of him, his back ramrod straight. Katara grabbed some napkins from her pockets, placed two slices on it and handed it to Zuko.</p><p>“No, really it's fine, i don't want to take your guys food.” Zuko said.</p><p>“What are you, a vegan or something?” Sokka said, gesturing with his second slice of pizza.</p><p>“Sokka.” Katara warned with a threatening inflection.</p><p>“Uh, no?”</p><p>“Have you had dinner yet?” Sokka continued.</p><p>“No.”</p><p>Katara held the pizza slices out to him again. Zuko accepted.</p><p>Zuko took a couple tentative bites before Katara felt it was an appropriate time to interrogate him. Of course.</p><p>“So what's your major?”</p><p>“Biology. Poli-Sci minor.”</p><p>“Sokka's is an engineering major. Where are you from?”</p><p>“Uh, local.” Zuko replied, Sokka noted his shoulders tense, which meant Katara probably did too. Home was a touchy subject apparently.</p><p>“Are you excited to study here? Any clubs you're thinking of joining?” Katara asked, quickly moving past the topics of home and family life.</p><p>“Yeah uhm I think there's a bird watching club on campus..”</p><p> </p><p>It was about 7:30 when Katara poked Sokka.</p><p>“We should go soon.” Her voice was light but her face was sad.</p><p>They had finished the pizza pretty quickly between the three of them, Zuko had moved to his own bed and they had all chatted for a while. It was surprisingly unawkward, despite Zuko's glaring lack of social skills.</p><p>“You gotta go to LAX right?” Zuko asked.</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>Zuko hummed softly.</p><p>“Yeah you should probably head out now, The traffic is really bad right now.”</p><p>“Isn't it always? It’s LA.” Sokka replied.</p><p>Zuko let out a small breath, an almost laugh. Sokka was getting somewhere. <em>Hell yeah</em> he thought to himself.</p><p>Sokka extracted himself from the bed, shoved his vans back on his feet, before heading over to his closet to grab a jacket. Then quickly remembered that he was now in LA and it was hot as balls outside. He opted for his pair of knock off ray bans that Toph had given him as a farewell gift.</p><p>“Alright Katara, let's rock and roll.”</p><p>“Do you have your keys?”</p><p>Sokka patted his jeans down, spun around three times before Zuko subtly coughed and pointed at Sokka's desk. Sokka snatched them up and turned back to Katara and Zuko, who were both wearing very similarly amused faces.</p><p>“Now! Now we can rock and roll.”</p><p> </p><p>The drive to the airport was quiet. The Wallflowers played softly in the background as Sokka tried not to cry. The longest and farthest he had been from Katara was the distance of the street that stretched between their two schools when Sokka had left to highschool while Katara finished up in middle school. They were always together, Katara was his first and best friend. Now she was going to be a state away.</p><p>Logically he knew Katara could handle herself just fine, knew she didn't need him as much as he needed her but he was still her older brother. Threatening boys about breaking Katara's heart over facetime isn't the same. Helping her with Pre-Calc over facetime isn't the same. Nothing was the same. And it sucked, a lot.</p><p> </p><p>“Do you have your toothbrush?” Katara asked at the gate.</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“What about your meds?”</p><p>“Yes, Katara.”</p><p>“Now boarding flight 387” Katara glanced over at the check-in desk.</p><p>“What about your retainer? You packed your retainer, right?”</p><p>She was spiraling just as much as he was.</p><p>“Katara, it’s gonna be fine! Big Sokka in the Big City! What could go wrong?”</p><p>“Frankly, a lot of things.” Katara snapped back, but not a drop of heat was beneath her words</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, whatever, come here.” Sokka said, pulling her into a tight hug. Tears pricked his eyes and he tucked his head into her hair. Oh, god whose hair was he gonna braid now?</p><p>“I love you, Sokka”</p><p>“I love you too.”</p><p>They pulled away, both blinking heavily.</p><p>“Don't get lost too much.”</p><p>“Don’t be too nice to Aang.” Katara let out a watery laugh.</p><p>She stretched her hand out.</p><p>“Secret handshake?” She asked.</p><p>“Duh.”</p><p> </p><p>Sokka drives back alone.</p>
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